Terry Kennedy – How One Skateboard Took Him To World Wide Success + Update On Fly Society

Terry Kennedy, commonly known as “Compton Ass Terry” or TK made his appearance on Rude Boy Lifestyle Magazine the other day to give us a update on his skating and music career. The exclusive interview also went into deep detail about his current status with Fly Society and the latest fall out of the group. He tells us about the recovery and re branding of the company as well as what he has in store for the next year. Terry has an amazing track record for skating success world wide. As one of the most popular skaters in history and the co-founder of Fly Society Clothing Comapny, TK has no plans of ever slowing down. Check out this exclusive interview with Terry Kennedy, exclusively on Rude Boy Lifestyle Magazine.

RBMAG: What is most important to you right now business wise?TK: Skating, straight up skating. The skating was the machine that drove everything. Without skating nothing would have opened up. This is what got me my opportunities. I need to keep skating you know.

Have you ever gotten discouraged from being injured?Yeah, well I’m used it now. When I get hurt, it is what it is. It’s second nature. Back in the day, oh yeah! I didn’t understand the progression and how it takes place. I enjoy it more now, so I accept it.

What was your worse accident?I don’t really remember, I feel off a stair rail before and almost broke my ribs. It came straight to my check, like 20 stair jump. Thank God I didn’t really get seriously injured. I was blessed you know.

On the music side, what is the update? What’s up with Fly Society?I got to redirect it now. I had business partners that I was dealing with, but it kind of fell out. Now I have to redirection and re brand everything. I’m in that direction, so everything is now in a redevelopment phase.

TK as a solo, now are you still doing music on your own?Yes! I did a single recently. I’m sitting on a lot of music. It’s just now I had a team that fell through, so I’m looking for new artists, new skaters and take it from where I left off at.

I highly respect everything you’ve done. What is a typical work day consist of for you?Well I wake up and answer a lot of e-mails and phone calls. Then I redirect to my headquarters in NYC which is where Fly Society is based out of. Then I skate and spend time with family. I’m pretty organized. There isn’t anything crazy. It’s just a day to day. I wake up early and get to business on the calls and e-mails. When it’s time to be with family, that’s what I do. Most people don’t do that. It’s the problems I had with my partners. I read behind upon everything. I need to know everything. It’s a hard process; how to be organized.

The Fly Society clothing line, are you still involved fully in that regardless of the partners?Yeah absolutely. Regardless of our fall out with my cousin and all that, we are still family and it’s hard. Everything that has came to me came from skating. That’s my first love. I always do my job and go on the grind. I do whatever I have to do to succeed. That is my company. We all are getting money. We all have obligations. You can’t just look at the money. It’s a job. I didn’t get here from that. This shit doesn’t last if we don’t all do our jobs. No matter how much money you’ve got, you’ve got to do your job. Regardless, I will always be skating, this is my job. Skating got me here.

At the current status of Fly Society, who runs it now?The headquarters of the company is in New York City. All the shipping and packing takes place there. There is a company that takes care of all that. Everything else I have to sit there hand in hand to help. It’s a very heavy work load. I have a heavy job. We still have a long road ahead of us you know.

What was the reason the Fly Society group fell apart?Man, it hurts man. To know we’ve gotten this far and know that I’ve got to go backwards. People think that we’ve made it with Fly Society. We didn’t make it! There’s still so much more to do, and some many years to go. It’s not just about getting a check. We still have a long road ahead of us.

Why didn’t you just restructure right away and clear it up?Can I be honest man?! We had it going on man. We had a huge operation in New York. We had a twenty person team to handle the operation. That was in New York, that’s the company. But when I came back to Los Angeles, it was me doing all the work. It couldn’t be recouped. Like I said, when I get a check, it’s time to get to work, for my partners in Los Angeles, it wasn’t like that. A check was just money to them.

But it was still your company at the end of the day. Partnership is a very personal thing. Employees and partners are completely different. You mentioned new artists and a music team. Can you tell me about that?Yeah, I’m back to ground zero with everything and finding talent, and really restructuring. At this point I can’t really say. I’m just re developing. I need to be very statistical and smart about all this. I just have to step back and watch people’s talent. I let grass roots take over. But like you said, this is life. Let me just re organize and that’s really it. I appreciate the negatives too, it makes you re evaluate things a lot better.

Is there a possibility that you guys will come back together?Man I can’t even call it. All this just happened so recently and suddenly, it’s really hard to say. It’s still very confusing to me. So, I really can’t call it. I’m still asking myself “what happened?” You know what I mean?

What’s in store for TK in the next year?Yes, just a very heavy work load man. Just work work work. I want to keep giving people great content. It doesn’t matter if it’s clothes, music or skating. Whatever I can bring out that is positive to this world, it’s going to come. This is me, I am the brand and I want to have a positive image.

Last question is, how involved are you with Fly Society? Do you do the designs? What is it that you do there and how much do you do for the company as far as TK?I would say just about 50%. I can’t say 100% because I do have backers in the company and investors and what not. So I can’t call 100% of the shots. I respect them. They have been doing this way longer than me as far as merchandising. I put in everything I know with everything they know. It’s a good relationship. No one can do anything to one another. I believe in this. We came together and we are doing better. Remember I was with Supra, Ice Cream etc. I have some knowledge, but they have over 30 years in the garment industry. We all share the same passion.